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How to Manage Digital Assets Upon Death

What Are Digital Assets?

The term digital assets refers to any digital or online accounts and the data held within, which may include personal information and/or critical data about our lives. In some cases, these digital accounts may also contain financial assets that others don’t even know exist.

Types of Digital Assets

Many people have at least one digital asset or online account, even if it is something as simple as storing files on a computer, maintaining an email account, or setting up an online bank account. Even more of us likely have multiple online accounts. Some of the most common digital assets we acquire during our lifetime include:

Social Media Profiles

Most people today have a profile on at least one (if not more) of the following social media networks:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

Instagram

Pinterest

Tumblr

In addition to social media profiles, many people keep a blog, or an online resume or portfolio, which houses their personal stories, professional experience, and creative projects they’ve worked on during their lives.

Financial Accounts

With so many ways to save, invest, analyze and transfer financial information online, people today may have several accounts, which are likely accessible online or through computer software. Some examples of such accounts include:

Accounting Software

Online Bank Accounts

Retirement Accounts

Insurance Accounts

Annuity Accounts

Investment Accounts

Online payment portals

Personal Use/Entertainment

Many of us have subscriptions that renew automatically every month, every six months, every year, and so on. A few examples of such subscriptions include:

Digital magazine subscriptions

Automatic home delivery services

Online television (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu)

Music (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora)

Phone and Internet subscriptions

Online Learning subscriptions

What Happens When We Die?

Each account that we sign up for typically requires basic to detailed personal information to be input before joining the program, which is then stored online until we decide otherwise. It’s important to consider what will happen to the information you have saved in a digital file or online long after you’re gone. Will your files be available to those who need them? And, will they be kept private from those who shouldn’t have access?

Use a Digital Asset Management Tool.

Research your options, and choose a tool that you feel most comfortable with. Many of the available tools offer free trials, so you can try them out risk free, and then choose the one you like best, and one that fits within your budget.

Plan Now.

Don’t put it off. You don’t have forever, after all. Start thinking about what you want to happen to your data and other digital assets when you die. The sooner you start the planning process, the better, as we never know how long we have on this earth.